Fashion Notes: Spring 2009 Shopping List (The Kindly One)

NEED
My spring shopping list focuses exclusively on basics. Having lost a bit of weight recently, I'm less in need of sartorial reinvention than I am of having clothes that fit.

I've finally found the jeans silloutte that best suits me. Anything that hugs the thighs and creates a straight line down the calf elongates my legs and prevents me looking weighed down by excessive volume. Both smaller bootlegs and straight jeans work for me, and I like the medium rinse of this pair. The best jeans end somewhere over the arch of my foot, elongating my legs as much as possible, and at 5'4", I need anything that'll give the illusion of length.

I can't wear full-length jeans all spring, though. Living in the sub-tropical climate of east Tennessee means at some point in the spring, people stop dressing primarily for fashion and dress instead for the wretched heat and humidity. Jean shorts are one of the most popular warm-weather items to wear in this area, and they're something I've had difficulty adopting. Either the cuts are trashy and unflattering, or they have an ugly rinse/random shredding. These look decent, though. They wouldn't be too short on me, and they look like a simple pair of jeans someone cut into shorts, which is exactly what jean shorts should be.

It's amazing how much cooler and lighter I feel in the summer heat when I switch from trainers to sandals, and living in a climate where the weather quickly becomes humid and very hot, anything that can keep even part of me cool is essential. This pair meets my sandal prerequisites. They aren't flip-flops, they have the look of natural leather, they don't cut off my legs at an ungainly height, and they have interesting design details due to the placement of the buckle and straps. Also, as someone who doesn't believe in spending a lot of money on sandals that I will inevitably trash, they are not very expensive.

Being small, I best suit dresses that skim the body. Despite the prevailing belief that bandage and body-conscious dresses are overly tight, properly fitted ones hug and flatter the body. Their design is no accident; the placement of each stripe of cloth is such that these dresses make the most of their wearer's bodies, giving them their best possible shape. Plus, they have the wearable ease of shift dresses.

WANT

There was a time not so long ago when crewneck cardigans were cut closer to the body, hitting at the hip to elongate the figure. Not so anymore. They are now invariably cut in a boxier shape. As I have a torso and not a trunk, this cut doesn't suit me. I would simply like to buy one crewneck cardigan that can be left buttoned or unbuttoned without stretching or tenting over me in a slimmer cut. So far, this is as close as I can find. Along with this, I would like to buy one or two racerback tanks in the shape I used to be able to buy, with the straps slightly inverting to carve some of the weight in my shoulders. As it is, I can only find tanks with perfectly vertical straps. This will not do.